Books and Pamphlets

Here are a few of the many books we have promoted over the years. As always, our criteria has always been and remains books that are useful for people involved in the movement for people’s needs, democracy, and a new society. Many more important books are available, and we would like to promote as many as possible. We welcome your suggestions for books.
Please include a brief summary and/or why you would like us to promote it, and leave on our Contact Page.
Thank you! — The Editors

Teatro Chicana: A Collective Memoir and Selected Plays

By Laura E. Garcia, Sandra M. Gutierrez, and Felicitas Nuñez
Foreword by Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez
This book is about the women in the Teatro de las Chicanas, a grass-roots troupe that later operated under a variety of names, including Teatro Laboral and Teatro Raíces. For over a decade, beginning in 1971, the women performed at political rallies, at antiwar demonstrations, in high school gyms, at community centers, and at practically every imaginable makeshift venue. This ragtag group put on short plays about the issues of the day, from immigration to police brutality, to discrimination in the public schools and the emerging feminist movement. It was the time of the “Chicano Movement,” coined to describe the social movement of Mexican-Americans in the Southwest against social discrimination. Teatro de las Chicanas was started by students at San Diego State College. It was begun at a time when the Chicano theater movement was growing. By 1970 Teatros had sprouted in scores of cities.The book was prepared by some of the women who comprised Teatro de las Chicanas/Laboral/Raíces. Seventeen women tell their stories.
Purchase on Amazon. Click here.

Dismazed and Driven: My Look at Family Homelessness in America

By Diane Nilan

Diane Nilan’s latest book, “Dismazed and Driven – My Look at Family Homelessness in America,” gives readers an unprecedented look at the invisible issue of family and child homelessness, especially in rural America. Diane Nilan has devoted her life to fighting and exposing homelessness by bringing the face and reality of homelessness to the entire country in stories, books videos and more. Visit her site at www.hearus.us @hearus1/
Purchase on Amazon. Click here.

DETROIT

Frontier Fort. British Outpost. Small town. French town. Last stop of the underground railroad carrying escaping slaves to freedom just across the river. Detroit volunteered to fight during the American Civil War, including 24th Michigan Infantry Regiment (part of the legendary “Iron Brigade”) suffering 82 precent casualties at Gettysburg in 1863. Detroit has been the home of Stroh beer, Vernor ginger ale and Faygo Cola. Jazz center, shark skin pants and Mohair sweater contrasted with the elegance of Hudson’s department store and …

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Blood About the Heart

By Sarah Menefee The Blood About the Heart is a concise, imagistic collection of poems, linked by a thematic storyline, that deals with life on the streets. Menefee’s style in these poems is often graphic, always thought-provoking and deeply moving as she locates the intimate within the naked social landscape of homelessness and need. At the center of the text is the human heart, where the voices of self and other find their dialectic.

Purchase on Goodread website. Click here.

The Politics of Water and the Drought in California

By Salvador Sandoval, MD,MPH As Californians experience one of the most severe droughts in recent memory, massive multi-‐billion dollar projects, financed at taxpayer expense, are proposed to channel and divert Northern California rivers to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. We are told that these projects are vital to our economy, food production, jobs, and way of life. What we are not told is who really stands to benefit, what the very real dangers to our environment are, what the costs to future generations will be, and what alternatives exist.

The Battle of Benton Harbor: The People Versus the Corporations in America's Rust Belt

by People’s Tribune “The Battle of Benton Harbor: The People Versus the Corporations in America’s Rust Belt” discusses the victories and next steps in the struggle against the corporations in Benton Harbor, MI. A battle has been won, and this should be celebrated, but there is still a war going on. Will America have prosperity and democracy, or live in poverty under the heel of open corporate power? Will the American people move to take over the corporations before they take over society? This booklet holds lessons for everyone fighting for a just America.
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BLACK RADICAL: THE EDUCATION OF AN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY

by Nelson Peery “Black Radical: The Education of an American Revolutionary” begins with Nelson Peery’s integration back into civilian life following the war, and describes the development of his revolutionary consciousness as he attempts to move from first-class soldier to first-class civilian. The book offers a rare perspective on the crucial historical period from 1946 through 1968, including the postwar, grassroots struggle for equality and democracy led by Black veterans, the battles of the Black Left and revolutionaries during the McCarthy inquisition and their role in the Freedom Movement, and the 1965 Watts rebellion in Los Angeles.
Purchase on Amazon. Click here.

THE FUTURE IS UP TO US: A REVOLUTIONARY TALKING POLITICS WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

by Nelson Peery Nelson Peery discusses politics, revolution, women, youth, national movements, history, communism and the vision of a new cooperative world in this collection of political essays.
Purchase on Amazon. Click here.
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BLACK FIRE: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY

by Nelson Peery “Evocative…powerful…sad and sweet and angry all at the same time.” – The Washington Post Book World. This is a memoir about the untold story of the black soldier in World War II, racism and the struggle for reconstitution of our country. It is a foundation for understanding the epoch of revolution we presently occupy.
Purchase on Publishers Weekly website. Click here.

THE XIBALBA ARCANE

by Jack Hirschman “What this poet brings to us … is the simple truth that…. we have to stop hating each other….and start loving each other.” – Poet News In this book, Jack Hirschman takes us on a Mayan journey through the city of America and into the brutalized lives of its marginalized citizens. Other works include Endless Threshold; The Bottom Line., and more recently Fist of Sun, a translation of the work of the Italian poet, Ferruccio Brugnaro.
Purchase on Amazon. Click here.

New Battles Over Dixie: The Campaign For a New South

JOHN SLAUGHTER addresses the role of southern politics on the nation. He is author of New Battles Over Dixie: The Campaign For a New South,” a gripping, dramatic non-fiction account of Southern politics and economics. He grew up in the piney woods of rural Alabama, picking cotton as a youth. As a young man he was profoundly affected by the civil rights movement, and later worked in oil fields, shipyards, and paper mills. He has pastored churches and taught philosophy. He currently lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and is involved in building the Labor Party in the south. His presentations discuss the grassroots struggle for democracy and the role of southern politics on the nation.
Purchase on Amazon. Click here.